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Assessment of Profit Efficiency of Smallholder Maize Farmers in Limpopo Province, South Africa: A Stochastic Frontier Approach Cover

Assessment of Profit Efficiency of Smallholder Maize Farmers in Limpopo Province, South Africa: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development
Volume 75 (2025): Issue 1 (February 2025)
By:  and    
Open Access
|Mar 2025
Figures & tables

Figures & Tables

Table 1.

Population and sample size of the study

DistrictTargeted smallholder farmers (N)Sample size
Capricorn10722
Mopani37977
Sekhukhune37876
Vhembe510103
Waterberg14429
TOTAL1518307

[i] Source: author’s computation, 2022.

Fig. 1.

Map of South Africa showing Limpopo Province

Source: Google Maps.

Fig. 2.

Map of Limpopo province

Source: Municipalities of South Africa, 2024.

Table 2.

Multicollinearity test of variables included in the profit efficiency/inefficiency analysis

VariablesCollinearity statistics
toleranceVIF
Efficiency variables
Fertiliser cost.5311.883
Pesticide cost.4302.326
Herbicide cost.4472.238
Hybrid seed cost.4992.005
Water cost.7681.302
Labour cost.6381.568
Tractor cost.6491.542
Transport cost.7751.290
Storage cost.6201.613
Processing cost.3722.691
Mean VIF1.846
Inefficiency variables
Age.6291.589
Education level.8081.238
Household size.9611.040
Farming experience.7421.347
Mean VIF1.304

[i] Source: own computation from field survey data, 2022–2023.

Table 3.

Maximum likelihood and profit inefficiency determinants

ParametersCoef.St. Err.p-valuet-value
Production factor
(Constant)β0–17.7963.9080.000–4.55
Fertiliser costβ1–.013.6230.839–0.20
Pesticides costβ2.053.8230.5190.65
Herbicides costβ3.023.1080.8300.21
Hybrid seed costβ4–.053.0810.510–0.66
Water costβ5–.160.0470.001–3.42***
Labour costβ6–.035.0570.536–0.52
Tractor costβ7–1.591.5340.003–2.98***
Transport costβ8–.126.0740.0871.71*
Storage costβ9.111.1080.3051.03
Processing costβ10–3.893.4500.0008.66***
Insig2v1.891.0840.00022.63
Inefficiency variables
(Constant)αo–8.53614.0310.543–0.61
Ageδ1.129.1910.5010.67
Education levelδ2–.748.6780.0701.68*
Farming experienceδ3–.019.0820.042–2.68**
Household sizeδ4–613.5060.226–1.21
Sigma2.574724
Mean dependent var2.367SD dependent var3.546
Log Likelihood–727.72436
Number of obs307Chi-square231.385
Prob > chi20.000Akaike crit. (AIC)1489.449

* , ** and *** represents significance at 10%, 5% and 1% probability levels, respectively.

Source: own computation from field survey data, 2022–2023.

Table 4.

Frequency distribution of maize farmers

Efficiency class indexFrequencyPercentage
< 0.605416.29
0.60–0.6911838.44
0.70–0.898427.36
0.90–099517.92
Mean: 0.612
Min: 0
Max: 0.90

[i] Source: own computation from field survey data, 2022–2023.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17306/j.jard.2025.00015r1 | Journal eISSN: 1899-5772 | Journal ISSN: 1899-5241
Journal RSS Feed
Language: English
Page range: 56 - 63
Accepted on: Feb 4, 2025
Published on: Mar 31, 2025
Published by: Poznań University of Life Science
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year
Keywords:
profit efficiency,
determinants,
smallholder maize farmers,
stochastic profit cost function,
Limpopo province,
South Africa
Related subjects:
Business and economics,
Political economics,
Political economics, other,
Business management,
Business management, other,
Life sciences,
Life sciences, other,
Social sciences,
Political science,
Political science, other

© 2025 Mokgoshi John Mamashila, Michael Akwasi Antwi, published by Poznań University of Life Science
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 75 (2025): Issue 1 (February 2025)
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